Hub and spoke changes will not come into effect as scheduled

“If pharmacies are to be able to benefit from the hub and spoke arrangements, new clinical services must be commissioned”- says CCA 

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has notified Community Pharmacy England (CPE) that they will no longer be able to implement the new hub and spoke models from 1 January 2025 as initially planned.

The delay comes after the General Election, which put the progress of these amendments on hold.

The DHSC is currently briefing new ministers across all policy areas, including hub and spoke dispensing between different pharmacy owners.

As this process will take time, the implementation will not proceed as originally scheduled.

CPE has stated that it does not yet have a clear timeline and will provide an update to the sector once more information becomes available.

Malcolm Harrison, CEO of the Company Chemists’ Association (CCA), expressed disappointment over the continued delays in fulfilling commitments made in the 2019 contractual framework agreement to support pharmacies.

He said: “As part of the 2019 five-year deal, community pharmacy has had to make substantial efficiency savings.  In exchange, the Department for Health and NHS England committed to enable more efficient operating models with changes to supervision and hub and spoke laws.”

Harrison highlighted that for pharmacies to be able to benefit from the hub and spoke arrangements, it is essential to commission new clinical services.

“The costs of establishing and maintaining hub operations are significant, and with little to no profit available in dispensing NHS medicines, it is hard to see how new facilities could be established, or pharmacies could afford to procure assembly services from them.

Ultimately, policymakers must realise that community pharmacy needs a ‘new deal’ – one that involves an increase in core funding and investment in new clinical services, such as Pharmacy First,” he added.

In 2022, the DHSC launched a consultation on the hub and spoke dispensing, proposing legislative changes to enable this practice across different legal entities.

The consultation outlined two potential models: Model 1, where patients would interact only with the spoke pharmacy, and Model 2, which would allow the hub to dispense medicines directly to patients on behalf of the spoke pharmacy.

In May 2024, the government confirmed the next steps following the consultation, announcing that the proposed legislative amendments would come into force on 1 January 2025, subject to the approval of the statutory instrument by the Houses of Parliament and the Northern Ireland Assembly.